Levenshtein Distance

The /levenshtein endpoint allows you to calculate the Levenshtein distance between two strings. This distance represents the minimum number of operations required to transform one string into another.

POST/v6/levenshtein

Changed in 6.0.0

This endpoint moved from GET to POST. The two strings are now sent as a JSON body instead of query parameters, so they no longer appear in the URL — and therefore no longer in browser history or in the logs of any intermediary.

How it works?

The Levenshtein distance counts the minimum number of single-character edits (insertions, deletions, or substitutions) required to change one string into another. Useful for spell checking, fuzzy matching, DNA analysis, and plagiarism detection.

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
str1	Yes	The first string (max 1000 characters)
str2	Yes	The second string (max 1000 characters)

Both parameters are sent as a JSON body with Content-Type: application/json.

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
str1	string	The first input string
str2	string	The second input string
distance	number	The Levenshtein distance between the two strings

Code Examples

curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "str1": "example",
    "str2": "samples"
  }' \
  "https://api.sylvain.sh/v6/levenshtein"

Try It

POSThttps://api.sylvain.sh/v6/levenshtein

str1*

str2*

Error Handling

If parameters are missing or invalid, the API will return an error:

Error Message	Description
Please provide a first string (str1)	The str1 parameter is missing
Please provide a second string (str2)	The str2 parameter is missing